EIGHTEENTH CENTURY.
769
a demonstration by ciroumstances, that it was the man and not the crime, that was the object. These prosecutions for libels most commonly, if not always, originate in the resentments of party. They are not commenced for the satis&ctton of jo^ce, but for the gratification of rerenge. When the delinquents, who are generally tiie printers, come to be tried, the juries are told they are judges of only the fact of printing or pnblishing ; that whether the matter complained of be a libel or not, is a question of law ; and all the epithets, which in otner cases constitute the crime, such as intentionally, maliciously .wickedly, &c. are in this case inferences of law, with which they are to hare no concern, and upon all which they are incompetent to decide. Any man of the most ordinary understanding, most perceire, that this question of law is already decided, by bringing the man to trial. It would be absurd, and reflect infinite disgrace upon our boasted laws, to say that he was brought to trial for in- nocently committing an innocent act. The criminality has been determined : and the jnry are called only to decide the identity. Tlus is called law. And a man is sentenced to endure a long imprisonment, and to pay a heavy fine, and perhaps to the ignominy of the pillory, for having printM some silly paragraph, which no man would have remembered next day. And the printer is also sometimes put under an interdic- tion of the exercise of his trade, by being fur- ther sentenced to find sureties for his good be- haviour, in a sum perhaps exceeding the value of his property. And if he complains, he is told there is no hardship in the case ; for he is to take care to print only what is lawful, and then his sureties wUI not be forfeited. But how is he to disUngnish what is lawful, from what is un- lawful? A special jury of gentlemen are told, that they are not competent to decide upon any paper, wnether it is a libel or not, that being a question of law ; yet the culprit, who is com- monly a man of inferior rank, as well as educa- tion, must, at his peril, be competent to under- stand what a special jury cannot.* And this is called law. The law of libel changes like the seasons of the year. The North Briton was a horrid libel during one administration, and a very constitutional paper during the time of another. The writer of the Letter to the People of England,-f was punished by one administra- tion, and rewarded with a pension by another. Jonius's letter was a libel in Westminster hall — it was no libel in the city of London.
1786, Feb. 21. Died, John Hawes, printer
• Am Suat on the Uberty of the Pre—, ehiefls at it retpttt* Permmat Slander. By Dr. Hayter, some Ume lord bbuup of Norwich, and •ftervards lord blahop of Lon- don. TtA* ftrf excellent essay on the most important ri|^ts of mankiiid, is printed in the Mfe of John Atmon, 1790, and ire are sorry that its length only Undera us from tnaertinc it in this work. Dr. Hayter Justly obaenree, that " wtthoat the free use of the press, any characters or dCiigiis, onfaTourable to liberty, cannot be publicly known, UU it I* too late to oppoae them. Hence the greatest ene- mies to the press are Uuse characters which are notorious for entertaininc those designs."
t Dr. Shebbesre, see page 70S mtlt. He died 1788.
in Johnson's-court, Fleet-street, London, who, for his amiable disposition, and inflexible integ- rity, will long be rememba«d by his friends.
1786, March 16. John Walteb, printer of the Universal Register, convicted of a libel upon lord Loughborough, and sentenced to pay a fine of £60, at Guildhall, London.
1786, April 4. Died, Wells Eoleshah, a worthy journeyman printer, a character not un- known in the regions of politics, porter, and to- bacco, in London. He was bred to the pro- fession, and worked as a compositor, till disabled by repeated attacks of a formidable gout For some years he was employed in the service of the elder Mr. Woodfall, and his name appeared for some time as the ostensible publisher of the PvMic Advertiser. Having from nature a re- markable squint, to obviate the reflecdons of others, he assumed the name of Winkey, and published a little volume of humorous poetrr, m 1760, under the title of WinMt Whim*. He was one of die founders of the honourable society of Johns. In 1779 he was the author of a Short Sketch of English Grammar, 8vo. A great variety of his fugitive pieces appeared in die public prints. The latter part of nis life was principally supported by the profits of a very small snuff and tobacco shop, by collecting of paragraphs for the PiJ>lie Advertiser, and by ofiiciating occasionally as an amanuensis to Mr. John Nichols. He died overwhelmed with age, infirmides, and poverty, leaving an aged widow, who obtained a small pension from the company of stationers, and survived dll 1811.
1786, May 3. Died, Robert Collins, book- seller. Paternoster row ; of the firm of Hawes, Clarke, and Collins.
1786. Died, John Gaspard, a bookseller at Zurich in Switzerland. He published some esteemed works on entomology. His father was the celebrated artist John Gaspard Fuessili who died in 1782 ; and who wrote a History of the Artists of Switzerland, which is a good work.
1786, July 21. Died, Charles Bathdbst, successor to Benjamin Motte, and many years an eminent bookseller in Fleet-street, opposite St. Dunstan's church.
1786. Died, John Farmer, a worthy and industrious compositor. He is pardcularly mendoned in the will of the elder Mr. Bowyer, with whom he had "long wrought," as that worthy old gendeman expresses it. He continued to work in the office of his old master dll his death ; before which he had the comfort of having his name enrolled on the list of Mr. Bowyer's annuitants, in 1783.
1786, Sept. 12. Griffith Jones, printer and editor; he was born in 1722, and served his apprenticeship with Mr. Bowyer. Of this inge- nious man, slighter nodce has been taken by the biographers of the time than his virtues and talents certainly merited. He was many years editor of the London Chronicle,iiie Daily Adver- tiser, and the Public Ledger ; in the Literary Magazine with Johnson, and in the British j Magazine with Smollett and Goldsmith, his
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